Michael Poli awarded Erasmus Mundus Scholarships

HOBOKEN , N.J. – Dr. Michael Poli, Distinguished Associate Professor in Stevens Institute of Technology’s Howe School of Technology Management , has been awarded two Erasmus Mundus Scholarships for scholarly activity within the Masters in Strategic Project Management - European (MSPME) program.

“The list of applicants for Erasmus Mundus MSPME Scholarships for the third edition, 2008-2010 scholars was a long list of highly qualified candidates, each with strong profiles, valuable experiences and relevant research orientation,” said Paul D Gardiner, Program Coordinator, Heriot-Watt University.

Poli has been allocated two Erasmus Mundus scholarships for six weeks each, one for September/October 2008 at Umea University, Umea, Sweden and the other for May/June 2009 at the Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy.

The MSPME program offers professional training to students at the postgraduate level inspired by the most recent research in the field. Selection of students and scholars is competitive and based on academic performance and credentials.

The Consortium consists of three European Universities: Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, U.K.; Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy; and Umea University, Umea, Sweden.

These new awards will allow Poli to continue to promote Stevens’ Project Management program worldwide. He recently returned from Beijing, China, where he taught the Advanced Project Management course for the second time in two years at the Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE). In June 2008, Poli was a plenary speaker at Project forum 2008 held in Radenci, Slovenia where his message called for attendees to “think out of the box and be great together – in worldwide project management!”

In May 2008, Poli designed and implemented five two-day training sessions in “Implementing Strategic Project Management” as part of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Competitiveness Project in Serbia. That was followed in June 2008 by talking with small and medium sized companies in Serbia about their projects and project management needs. Previously, Poli has taught project management for Stevens in Paris, France, twice in the Dominican Republic, many times on-campus and through WebCampus, reaching out to a worldwide project management audience.

Stevens continues to be a leader in cutting edge education and research in the field of project management. Stevens developed and championed the concepts of Strategic Project Management and Project Strategy. Getting better business results, achieving competitive advantage, and producing value from projects have been the challenges presented to graduates of the Stevens Project Management program. These concepts have been embraced by Stevens’ students for years and are only now emerging in academic and practitioner programs, articles, books and best practice worldwide.

The Stevens Project Management program has a long history of success. The first project management course was offered in 1986. The Graduate Certificate program was established in 1997. Stevens Project Management degrees and courses were accredited by both the Global Accreditation Center (GAC) and the Project Management Institute (PMI) in 2004. At that time, Stevens was only the third such university worldwide to receive accreditation. In May 2007, Stevens awarded its 500th Graduate Certificate in Project Management. In May 2008, Stevens awarded its 600th certificate. This is a remarkable growth rate. Students who initially come to Stevens for their Graduate Certificate in Project Management go on to obtain their Masters or MBA degrees. The growth of the Stevens Project Management program can be attributed to the popularity of the project management courses offered and the practical and academic experience of the project management faculty, both full-time and affiliate.

About Stevens Institute of Technology

Founded in 1870, Stevens Institute of Technology is one of the leading technological universities in the world dedicated to learning and research. Through its broad-based curricula, nurturing of creative inventiveness, and cross disciplinary research, the Institute is at the forefront of global challenges in engineering, science, and technology management. Partnerships and collaboration between, and among, business, industry, government and other universities contribute to the enriched environment of the Institute. A new model for technology commercialization in academe, known as Technogenesis®, involves external partners in launching business enterprises to create broad opportunities and shared value.

Stevens offers baccalaureates, master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering, science, computer science and management, in addition to a baccalaureate degree in the humanities and liberal arts, and in business and technology. The university has a total enrollment of 2,040 undergraduate and 3,085 graduate students, and a worldwide online enrollment of 2,250, with a full-time tenured/tenure-track faculty of 140 and more than 200 full-time special faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America. Additional information may be obtained from its web page at www.stevens.edu.  

For the latest news about Stevens, please visit StevensNewsService.com.